


Not Exactly Absolute Zero

by Siria



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-16
Updated: 2010-02-16
Packaged: 2017-10-07 07:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Rodney does battle with a boiler.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Exactly Absolute Zero

**Author's Note:**

> Comment fic for Cate's Shared Body Heat Comment Fic Festival.

"I'm just saying, I've got a PhD in engineering. I have fixed alien spaceships and defused bombs and cobbled together life support systems out of toothpicks and bubble gum." Rodney crawled under the comforter and pressed his freezing cold feet—of course—up against John's calves. John tried to inch away, but there was no escaping from the Rodney limpet.

"Jus' b'cause you can't fix th'boiler," John said sleepily, "'S'not a slight on y'masculinity. Guy will be here with parts i'th'morning." Before Rodney had finally admitted defeat, thrown what sounded like a wrench at the boiler and cursed loud enough that John, all the way up on the second floor, could hear each and every syllable, John had been having a very nice dream. Boston College had made it all the way to the Superbowl—facing some fearsome opposition from a team of Viking ninjas—and Johnny Cash had just been about to ask John to take over for an injured Doug Flutie. He wanted to get back to it, but Rodney, as per usual, was proving distracting.

"That is a demon boiler," Rodney said, pressing close. His feet may have been bare, but he was wearing sweatpants, at least three t-shirts and a pair of gloves, and already John could feel himself start to sweat. "It's possessed. Administered by the IOC. Put together by Republicans. A minion of the devil."

"Same thing, right?" John mumbled.

"My point exactly!" Rodney said, jabbing him in the side with an over-enthusiastic finger. "Especially when it's absolute zero out there."

John cracked open an eyelid. Rodney had tugged up the comforter and arranged the pillows so that all John could see of him was the tip of his nose and one baleful blue eye. "It's -459.67 degrees outside?"

"We're in Colorado," Rodney sniffed. "All freakish things are possible."

"Point," John conceded. They weren't even halfway through the three months they had to spend in Colorado Springs, and Teyla had had to bale them out twice already. "Can we sleep now?"

"That is what I've been trying to do all along!" Rodney said, warming his hands against John's belly. "It's not my fault you've got no body fat and need me around to keep you warm."

"Yeah," John said, "that's _exactly_ what it is, McKay," and thought he deserved a medal for only hitting Rodney over the head with a single pillow.


End file.
